Six Flags Great Adventure

Visited: December 27, 2019

Attending: Brian and Carole

Carole and I bought Six Flags season passes this year, with the intent to use them while traveling, like we did in 2016. Alex said he didn’t want one, and he’s old enough to make that call now, which means Carole and I can spontaneously decide to go whenever we feel like it, without taking Alex’s plans into account. We’d never been to a Holiday in the Park before, and the weather was supposed to be warm for December -- a high of 55, although overcast -- so we decided to just go for the afternoon, stay until dark, and see the lights. The park opened at 1, but we didn’t arrive until around 2. Crowds were still light at the time, but the parking lot was a little more full than I’m used to, since we normally arrive at opening. Carole hadn’t been in a few years, and was relying on me to have a plan. I thought maybe we should do the Justice League ride first, as I suspected that would get more crowded later in the day. There was a bit of line, not too bad, but the ride broke down before we got to board. Carole wasn’t interested in Cyborg or Wonder Woman, and she’s not much for Wild Mice, so we passed on Dark Knight, and went to:

Batman: The Ride

There was nobody in line for this, so it was a station wait, nearly a walk-on, and we opted for row 7. I know Batman is fairly intense for an invert, so I was planning to ride defensively to avoid head-banging...and I needn’t have bothered. In what’s going to become a theme for this entry, the ride was running amazingly slow. There was barely any intensity at all, and certainly no worry about head-banging. We hopped right back on for a front-row ride, and had pretty much the same experience. Carole thought it was a little more intense from the front, but I thought it was just a difference in forces, crawling through the first half of an inversion before the train caught up and pushed us the rest of the way.

Skull Mountain

Skull Mountain is a coaster I usually skip unless it’s a completely dead day, but Carole thought it might be fun, and I thought we should do it early, because I knew there’d be crowds. We ended up waiting maybe 20 minutes total. Unfortunately, I was reminded why I normally don’t bother with this ride. The last time I rode this, I got some air, but not today. It was just a crawl through the layout, and there was even enough light inside to see what was going on. Somehow, it was even colder inside than out, although I’m not sure how that works.

Nitro

After Skull Mountain, we wandered by the Jersey Devil construction site, but it’s pretty much just mud and a few footers right now, so there’s nothing to report yet. With El Toro closed, Nitro was my main goal for the day. We waited a bit for a back-row ride, which is something Carole hadn’t done before, but with the coasters running slow, I wanted all the intensity I could get. Unfortunately, it didn’t help. The coaster was running so slowly that you could feel it slow dramatically as it reached the crest of each hill, then speed up again as the center of gravity passed the peak. Instead of lovely B&M floater, there was nothing as the coaster slowed, then a quick moment of flo-jector as my back seat went over the peak. I imagine the center of the train felt nothing at all. The bunny hills at the end of the ride, which are normally a lot of fun, were completely dead. We had single-ride Flash passes, which I was hoarding for a night ride, but the first experience was so disappointing, I didn’t bother riding again.

Superman: Ultimate Flight

After Nitro, we went over to the other side of the park. Superman is a ride we’ve always liked, initially for the novelty factor, but now just because it’s a lot of fun. It was running one train, because that’s what Great Adventure does with this ride, but the line was still pretty short when we got in it. We went for row 7, because it had the shortest wait, and I wanted to be as close to the back as I could be. I realize that I just rode Tatsu a month ago, and this Superman is now the bottom of my list for B&M flyers, but I really felt nothing as I was riding it. All through the train I could hear people screaming in fear, but it just felt routine to me. The pretzel loop had some strong positive G’s, as I expected, but the rest was boring.

We noted that the line for Superman had gotten a lot longer while we were waiting, so we decided not to re-ride, and also decided not to bother with Green Lantern. We thought about eating, but the prices were too high for mediocre food, so we decided to just bail and stop at McDonald’s on the way home. We dutifully looked around at the lights, but they weren’t anything special. Compared to Magic Mountain and Knott’s that I saw last month, Great Adventure looked fairly pathetic. On the whole, it wasn’t a terrible day, but it certainly wasn’t a good one.